Which came first…legalized abortion or contraception? Contraception, in 1960. Abortion, legalized in 1973, may have been the goal, but it had to be justified. Get the people accustomed to contraception. Observe that it sometimes fails. Then point to the need for abortion.

One hundred years ago, most people would have gasped at the idea of contraception.

Today, the idea is so widely accepted that it’s even applied to wild horses.

A few years from now, you’ll hear complaints that it’s too expensive, too difficult to administer and doesn’t provide a lasting solution (to the wild horse ‘problem’). An argument will be made that ‘excess’ animals must be sterilized or euthanized.

At that point, our wild ones will be finished, and you can thank the PZP zealots, most of whom are women.

More evidence of overpopulation on the Virginia Range, an area with a stocking rate ten times higher than your average HMA in Nevada, 9.4 horses per thousand acres vs. 0.84 horses (plus a few burros) per thousand acres on HMAs. Photo taken 04/15/18.

Critics argue that the range can’t support these numbers.

Don’t be fooled, they’re not trying to protect the land, they’re trying to protect a narrative.

The stocking rate on some of these HMAs is so low that the probability of actually seeing a horse or burro is small. Best chance might be on the Blue Wing Mountains and Warm Springs Canyon HMAs, with stocking rates of 3.6 and 2.2 animals per thousand acres respectively (based on the upper range of the AMLs).